Opposition
by Tramontana Keeper
Summary: The REAL reason you hurt me is because of your innate feelings of inferiority," said Malik. No, his yami didn't believe him either.


And here I am, writing another random oneshot instead of getting my act together with my other fics. This sorta ties in with 'The Hikari Who Lost His Light', because they're dealing with the same topics, but happening in different storylines. Fear the psychobabble.

**Opposition**

Malik pushed himself slowly off the floor of his soulroom, trying to overcome the phantom pain.

"Pathetic creature," his yami sneered, kicking him in the ribs one last time, before turning to leave. Malik was never left with any physical marks from these 'sessions', but his body always persisted in feeling as though he had really been beaten up.

"Yami," he sat up on his knees. There wasn't much he could lose anymore, anyway. "I know why you hurt me."

Yami Malik paused in the doorway, intrigued in spite of himself. "Oh?"

"It's because of your innate feelings of inferiority to me."

The yami stared at him for a minute, before letting out a loud laugh. Two quick strides brought him back in front of his hikari, and he ruffled his hair roughly. "I guess I've finally managed to knock a screw loose in that twisted little mind of yours."

"I'm serious!" Malik pushed him away, and stared at his yami intensely. "The hikari is so obviously better and more capable than the yami, it's no wonder you feel inadequate beside me."

"It was amusing the first time, but you had better watch yourself," the yami growled warningly.

"Hear me out, just this once. I'll prove it to you."

Yami Malik stared at him for a long moment, before deciding. Why not humor him this once? It wasn't often that his hikari managed to surprise him like this. "Speak."

Malik took a deep breath. He had one chance –he had to take care not to squander it. "All a yami knows how to do is destroy."

"That proves the yami is strongest."

"But destroying is easy. I'm a hikari, and I can destroy also."

"You don't, though. That expresses your innate weakness."

"I choose not to, because I want to devote myself to creating –which demands so much more time, effort, and skill than destroying does."

"What is all that worth, if it doesn't last? Light will never defeat darkness."

"It's not an issue of defeating. Light creates, because that is Light's purpose and joy. Dark has no joy."

"Dark has plenty of joy. We take joy in destroying."

"Not really. Because the only reason you destroy is because you cannot create, and are jealous. Think of a human's life."

"Worthless."

"You can kill a person in seconds, right?"

"Well? That only proves how weak humans are. Something is worthless if it's not strong enough to stand against the darkness."

"You destroy in seconds, what a person took years and years to create. If you kill a person 20 years old, you destroyed twenty years of work."

The yami smirked. "That's the beauty of it."

"But Light goes and creates more people. Darkness can't do that. That means that Light can do things that Dark can't."

"Light can create nothing that cannot be destroyed by Dark."

"But Light can destroy something created by Light. That means that Light is better than Dark. It can create, as well as destroy if it wants to. So who needs Dark?"

"_Light_ needs Dark. The darkness existed before the light, and will continue to exist after it."

"But until there was Light, Dark had no meaning. It is only the Light which defines the Darkness. Tell me, o powerful Yami, what will you do when all the light is gone?"

"Exult in my victory."

"For eternity? Dark has no power, except to destroy what Light creates. When the Light is gone, and you have nothing else to do, no one to prove your power to, then you will perceive that your power is really nothing at all. And then you will wish you still had the Light."

"Darkness is more than destruction. Lust is darkness."

"But Love makes the world go 'round."

"Love is the excuse you give for your weakness."

"You only say that, because you cannot feel it."

"I wouldn't _want_ to feel it."

"That is only the excuse you give for your incapacity. In a sense, you are crippled."

"You are no more crippled than I. It is the dark feelings within people that give rise to the creativity you praise so much."

"We wouldn't need it, if there was no darkness to fight. The darkness creates the need to fight against it. The Light would be perfectly happy without the Darkness. You are nothing but a scourge upon a perfect world."

"Without the darkness, the Light would stagnate in your so-called 'perfect world', until they would self-destruct. If I wasn't here, you would be so sickeningly altruistic you would get yourself killed within a day."

"Without Dark, Light would have no meaning."

This comment threw the yami. "Hey…you switched sides!"

"No, I didn't. That's another difference between us; I can look at things the way they are, and I can admit when I'm wrong. You can't. That's why Light develops, but Darkness stays essentially the same."

"Darkness develops too."

"What, to come up with new depravity? War is the same, in every generation."

"War is good for humanity."

"So you're saying you're working for the greater good?"

"No!"

"Then why are you trying to prove that you're _good_ enough?"

"I'm not trying to prove I'm good!" Unable to resist any longer, he slapped Malik across the face, hard.

Malik said quietly, undauntedly, "If you truly didn't care, you wouldn't try to hurt me so much. And if you didn't need me, you would have killed me long ago. But you know that without me to define you, you will cease to have an existence."

"_Bullshit_."

"Then kill me."

Silence stretched taut between them for one long moment, as lavender bore into lavender.

"What are you trying to prove?" the yami finally asked, looking away. "Do you want me to _love_ you?" He said the word as if it were in a foreign language.

Malik smiled sadly at the floor. "That is impossible. Darkness cannot love."

"No, it cannot. Do you expect me to stop hurting you?"

"No. That is the definition of darkness. The day you stop fighting me, will be the day you cease to be my Dark, and I your Light."

"Do you _love_ me?"

"Yes."

Yami Malik grabbed his hikari's chin roughly, tilting his head up, leaning closer to look into his eyes. "Fool," he whispered, then let go and left the soulroom quickly, slamming the door.


End file.
